The power of food—to transcend boundaries, both geographical and cultural, and unify—has been the main idea behind Chesnok. By focusing on the recipes that have allowed my own family to bond through the years, I have created a space, a virtual communal table if you will, where I too can forge a connection with others in my community and around the globe. This week marks exactly one year since I’ve started to share a little of my life and my family’s food heritage with you all and I’ve been rewarded with a warm and welcoming embrace. To know that others believe in me has gone, and will continue to go, an incredibly long way towards this passion project of mine.

Even though I grew up in a household where the family meal was always the main focal point of holidays and family gatherings, where eating out was once-a-year kind of occasion, my own passion in the kitchen, particularly for baking, didn’t really take hold until high school. Not really sure the exact moment it all clicked, but I do remember coming across what was then a nascent blogging world, being subsequently introduced to the likes of smittenkitchen, David Leibovitz, and Joy the Baker. All of a sudden, obsessing over my RSS feed—making sure I was up to date on all my 20+ blogs— was my new and favorite source of procrastination. This was also around the same time that my usual visits to the library also began to change in motive. I would go and emerge hours later carrying literal stacks of books—no longer of novels, but of cookbooks and the occasional food memoir.

In my last post I talked about summer’s generous bounty—how do you take full advantage of it?? It’s a bit tough, I have to admit—not only is there so much variety in produce available, but there’s also the sheer abundance of it too. At work, as a baker, I can’t seem to make enough pies, buckles, coffee cakes to keep up with all the peaches and nectarines that need to be made use of. Outside of work, I can’t seem to keep up with my impulse buying of heirloom eggplants, tomatoes and peppers at the farmer’s market. How can I resist when they’re all seeming to say, “Buy me before the season is over!!”

Nature is so generous to us this time of year that, presented with such an abundant bounty, I often find myself facing the same dilemma. Do I savor this piece of fruit or vegetable immediately, teeming with all the goodness and flavor of summer, or do I save it instead to cook with? If I practice a little restraint and go with the latter, I’m then left with another dilemma: how do I make the absolute best use of it?

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